My guess is the upholstered coffee table will be this last decor era's outstanding contribution to interior design. Our kids have had one, in the predominant style--large rectangle, "leather" (but good quality) covered, with an openwork wood shelf below--and its function is beyond everything. This is the center of the home, the kitchen island only a close runnerup. :) I disagree that they can't be "styled," even if there are limitations. Porcelain shore bird collection problematic, but my DIL always has a large (ubiquitous, useful, but attractive) tray on it done up for the season. A basket on the shelf below holds the remotes and other visual clutter. I did have a personal happy moment when I realized that they need not be stiff, stained wood with black leather upholstery. A piece of furniture of the appropriate height in any style can be upholstered and painted, stenciled, gilded, waxed, or whatever. (My own future project here.)

Thanks, Terriks! We ate dinner last night off our "new" $10/pair trays, and darned if we didn't look like a couple of little old people -- DH all scooted up to his tray while sitting on the edge of the recliner and me hunched over mine, perched on the edge of my chair! LOL! But hey, no spills on our laps, as has happened too many times when we attempt to precariously balance plates!

What a nifty project, September. Pictures would be great, Scrappy. To develop that nook and cranny aspect, Rob's layout of facing a desk surface into the stairs sounds good. Depending on how much you'd expect to use it it might be a permanent fixed desk or could be a fold-down surface of some type. You don't mention a file drawer, but one could roll out from under, if desired a partial-width drawer from under a fixed desk against the house's outside wall or full-width set close to floor at the very back of the work surface of either fixed or fold-up. That last would work well if you wanted to keep an open look to your nook by suspending the work surface on a large decoratively curved wood bracket. Depending on your comfort level with the ceiling height, the rear of the desk could potentially set farther back than the post, with the post itself part of the support detail. So, desk to your right as you look in. On the green wall, whatever else you end up doing definitely if possible remove the existing drywall and retrieve up to an additional 3-1/2" of depth, probably 3 or less after finishing, but precious inches added to perhaps 9" of the space already there. Then using those 12" or so, perhaps the bar and other shallow storage on the full height of that wall, the space enclosed with doors below a desk-height counter, open for about 20" above that counter for working and openness, then open shelves above that for storage of anything you wanted. Books? A book shelf or two could also be fitted in along the back of the desk. Back/outside wall--how about wrapping that counter and the closed storage below right on around to the desk? At whatever depth felt good to you. The wall above could hold a single favorite piece of art. To the right of the column, keeping it simple for now, as suggested a single door to storage. Drawers are a possibility, though. Regarding cost--Ikea if anywhere near at all. Their 12" and 24" deep cabinets can be cut down easily to whatever depth is needed, the shelves and rest pop together as an evening project while you watch TV, and they're so inexpensive a mistake is a shrug and try again. But especially for their extremely inexpensive smooth-glide full-extension drawer units of various sizes that hold a great deal of weight and are great for maximizing use of space. Including, if you want, ones that fit into 12"-deep cabinets that are pretty modest in the amount of actual storage space they offer but are still very good for organizing pencils, bottle openers etc. If you could spare 12" on the outside wall, instead of say 8, a row of those could run around both walls under the counter and serve both desk and bar, as well as little household thingies in general. Ikea has a couple of solid-wood doors you might use, but only the slab one lends itself to custom sizing. You might make these yourself. Their solid-wood counters could be used for...counters. Seat--something small but comfy and attractive on wheels with a swivel seat. I'm looking forward to seeing what other ideas are generated and what you end up doing with this nice little space.

imhofan, you inspired us to go look at new rugs. Fell in love with an oriental one that then changed the whole scheme. (See my new post "Tell me this fabric looks okay with wall and carpet.") And what we discovered when we laid the rug down is #1 it brightened up the entire room and #2 our slightly scratched glass coffee table no longer showed the scratches. So we're going to wait on that ottoman for now and save $500.